When China’s government started paying more attention to surging commodity prices a few months back, hedge fund manager Richard Lee’s trading models told him a correction was imminent. Inventories of reinforced steel bars, a key construction material, started rising before the arrival of the summer slow season, and China’s State Council had warned repeatedly on price increases, he said in an interview. “Our models were flashing strong signals of a reversal,” said Lee, the general manager of Shanghai-based Regan Group, which manages about 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion). By the middle of May, rebar prices began to ... (full story)